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Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

Does Your Alarm Have a Default Duress Code?

Summary: Krebs discovered that his Safewatch Pro 3000 alarm system, installed by ADT, came with a default duress code of 2-5-8-0 - the four digits running straight down the middle of the keypad - which appears to disarm the system while silently alerting the monitoring station to a possible intruder. An ADT technician told him the company routinely sets all such systems to this same default, a policy that is not documented in the user manual, and ADT phone support later helped him change it after some trial and error.

What's compelling: A single default code shared across an entire installed base means anyone who knows the pattern can trigger a silent duress alert - or, from the other side, a homeowner under real duress is relying on a code that thieves may already know. The fact that the policy was never disclosed to the customer is the part a security leader should sit with: what other defaults are running in your environment that no one told you about?

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Data Breaches
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